Software testing promises jobs to non-IT graduates

Software Testing industry in India is poised to grow leaps and bounds, promising well-paid jobs to thousands of young graduates, including those without an Information Technology background.

With India becoming a software development hub and the industry becoming more quality conscious, the sector has witnessed a huge growth in the last few years, according to industry insiders.

"When we began software testing operations 10 years ago, there was hardly any awareness about its significance. Now there are 12 to 15 big firms involved in third party testing, besides several smaller firms," Vanaja Aravind, Executive Director of city-based Thinksoft, said recently.

According to Thirumal Raj, Head of Testing services of Chennai-based STC ThirdEye Technology, in the fiscal 2007-08, the industry in India is in need of around 25,000 to 30,000 software testers, who need not necessarily be IT professionals.

"Our training centres are inducting students from Arts and Commerce background. This year itself we are sending out around 15,000 trained hands, of which 50 per cent are from non-IT background, from our 14 centres across the country." Natarajan Padmanabhan of Amitysoft pointed out that there has been an increased awareness about the career prospects in the industry since last year, as 10-12 persons walk in for the training courses in his organisation on a daily basis.

Around 40 per cent of the testers of Thinksoft, which focuses on banking, financial and insurance sectors, have their educational background in economics.

Software Testing is a process of evaluating a software under controlled conditions, verifying that it satisfies specified requirements and also identifying differences between expected and actual results.

Almost all the software developing firms now have their own in-house testers, Padmanabhan said.

However, 'third party software testing' was an emerging category of IT services that has already become a USD 13 billion market. Industry analysts such as Forrester and Gartner have forecast its upward trend, said Aravind.

India at present commands a USD two billion of this global market and it is projected to swell to USD 8 billion by next year.

The country also has a very huge market to tap in the offshore software testing business as well, due to its cost-effective labour. The offshore market has been estimated to be USD 6.1 billion of which India has the potential to tap 70 per cent.

Industry analyst Gartner Group finds that testing could make up to 25-50 per cent of software budgets. Of this, independent testing is growing at 50-65 per cent rate while the part of work done offshore is growing at 35-40 per cent.

Thinksoft has been witnessing a 60-65 per cent annual growth consistently for the past three years, said Aravind.

According to her, several large technology companies have started depending on independent or third party testers to certify their software before handing it over to end customers.

Similarly end users like banks have now started using the services of independent 'testing vendors' to test the software provided to them.

"In-house testing by the same developers who do the programming, can lead to disastrous results, as they may overlook errors," Padmanabhan pointed out.

"Moreover, many customers are convinced about the software product when they are certified by independent testers," he added.

Errors in software programmes can result in huge losses, not only financially but also with regard to reputation, clientele and efforts, said Aravind.

"As per reports, in 2004 a particular bank in the US had been losing monthly USD four billion due to a bug in its software," she added.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US, the country lost around USD 60 billion in 2002 due to software bugs. — PTI